Door-operating mechanism



April 29, 1958 F. E. DUMLER DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 23, 1956 Fig. 2

Fig. I

INVENTOR.

Fred E. Dumler WW ATTORNE;

United States Patent 2,832,589 DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISM Fred E. Dumler, near Denver, Colo. Application February 23, 1956, Serial No. 567,136 4 Claims. (Cl. 268--62) This invention relates to means applicable to and operable in association with door panels mounted to swing on a vertical axis, and particularly double such panels coactable at their free vertical margins to close a single wide opening, to automatically shift the panel or panels from closed to open position, and to effectively retain the panel or panels in such open position, in immediate reaction to the release of any arrangement for retaining the panel or panels in closed position, and has as an object to provide novel and improved such means of simple, in expensive construction, expedient adaptability, and wide utility.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel and improved door-operating mechanism particularly applicable with facility and advantage to the automatic opening actuation of complementary double door panels swingable on vertical axes, such as are extensively utilized as closures for the vehicle access openings of private garages, and the like.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel and improved door-operating mechanism effective to automatically move an associated door panel swingable on a vertical axis to open position, and to retain said panel in such open position against moderate adventitious forces tending to close the same, whenever the panel is unsecured in closed position.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel and improved door-operating mechanism applicable to open, and to hold open, door panels swingable on vertical axes that is susceptible of advantageous correlation with remote control door-latching means.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel and improved door-operating mechanism applicable to open, and to hold open, door panels swingable on vertical axes that requires no power adjunct.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel and improved door-operating mechanism applicable to open, and to hold open, door panels swingable on vertical axes that is susceptible of inexpensive production from readily-available materials, that is adaptable to facile operative association with the door panels of existing installations without reworking of the latter, and that is positive and efiicient in attainment of the ends for which designed.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and operativecombination of elements as hereinafter set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated by the accompanying drawing, in which-- Figure l is a somewhat diagrammatic elevation of the interior face and associated frame of a typical, doublepanel door in closed position and with the improvements of the invention applied thereto ready for practical use.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken substantially on the indicated line 2--2 of Figure 1, broken lines in the view indicating alternative limiting positions of movable elements of the assembly.

In many structures, and in a considerable diversity of detail, relatively large access openings, such as those for the accommodation of automobile transit into and out from garages, are conventionally equipped with door closures consisting of duplicate, complementary panels 10 and ll'each hinged, as at 12, along a vertical margin to an upright member of a door frame 13 to swing about a vertical axis outwardly of the structure from a closed position wherein the panels are coplanar across the opening with their free vertical margins substantially abutting to an open position wherein said panels outstand from the plane of said opening in a divergent relation outwardly of the structure such as to fully expose the opening. Customarily, the free vertical margin of one of the door panels is conditioned, as by means of an overlap strip 14, to so engage the free vertical margin of the complementary panel as to retain the latter against opening movement when the panels are closed into coplanar relation, and the panel carrying the marginal overlap is furnished with latch means 15, or the equivalent, releasably coactable with elements of the frame 13 to secure and retain the panels in the coplanar relation characteristic of their closed position. Obviously, release of the latch 15 from its engagement with the frame 13 frees the associated panel for shift on its hinge axis: to open position, and such shift of the panel carrying the latch frees the other panel for similar shift, but to fully open the doorway served by the panels it is necessary that each panel be separately manipulated by an operator who must in some manner brace or secure each of the panels in its opened position to retain them against return to obstructing relation with the doorway in reaction to vagrant air currents, non-vertical disposition of the hinge axes, and other possible influences. Such elforts incident to the opening and immobilizing of conventional hinged panel doors, of either single or double panel type, are onerous, time-consuming and inefficient and nullify the advantage to be had through the use of arrangements for unlatching the closure from a remote control point, hence the instant invention is directed to the provision of means simply and conveniently applicable to conventional hinged door closures of the general type above described and operable to automatically shift the door panel or panels to fully open position in reaction to release of the associated latch means and to hold the shifted panel or panels in open position subject to expeditious return to closed position at will.

Giving effect to the principles of the invention, a direction-changing pulley 16, or the functional equivalent, is mounted for rotation on and about a suitable axis fixed in any expedient manner adjacent an upper corner of the doorway to an element of the frame 13, or to an analogous area of the structure wall, away from which the panel to be served is adapted to open, whereby to dispose the plane of pulley rotation substantially parallel to the plane of the panel when in closed position. A rigid, actuating arm 17 is formed of any appropriate material in any expedient manner to a length and to a sigmoidal aspect in the horizontal plane characterized by spaced parallelism of its end portions such as to span from engagement at one end with the inner face of a door panel to overlying relation at its other end inwardly of and laterally across the door frame or wall margin hingedly supporting said panel. One end of the arm 17 is worked for attachment to the door panel, as by means of bolts or screws 18, while the other end 19 of the arm is arranged as an eye, or otherwise, for connection with one end of a flexible member 20, such as a rope or cable, and the said arm is fixed to the inner face and adjacent the upper margin of the panel to extend in a substantially horizontal plane inwardly from the panel and away from the free margin thereof to projection of its free end across and away from the panel beyond the hinged margin thereof, a significant feature of the invention being such correlation of the arm attachment to the panel with the width of the latter as to register the free end 19 of the arm on a projected line, indicated at L in Figure 2, between the hinge axis of the associated panel and the groove of the pulley 16 at the side of the doorway remote from said axis when the panel is moved to the desired open position. A flexible member 20 connected at one end to the free end 19 of I the arm 17 is led thence across the span of the doorway and about the pulley 16 at the side of said doorway remote from the arm to terminate in a short length depending from the pulley which connects with and supports a weight 21, such as a conventional sash weight, reactive to gravity. Manifestly, the organization of pulley re, arm 17, flexible member 20, and weight 21 is adaptable for operative association with a door closure of single panel type, or, as illustrated, with the individual panels of a double door, the significant factors in either adaptation being location of a pulley at the side of the doorway remote from the panel hinge axis, attachment of the arm to the panel to project the free end of the arm across the hinge axis of the panel for registration of the said arm free end with the line between the pulley groove and panel hinge axis, location of the flexible member in spanning relation with the panel between tie free end of the associated arm and the pulley remote from the panel hinge axis, and selection of a weight adequate through the described linkage to swing the panel on its hinge axis.

Constructed and arranged as shown and described, operation of the improvement with respect to either single or double panel doors should be readily apparent from the foregoing. With the door panel or panels latched in closed position, release of the latch 15, either directly or from a remote control point, permits the weight 21 to act through the flexible member 20 about the pulley 16 and through the arm 17 to draw the free end 19 of the arm toward the pulley and to consequently swing the associated panel on its hinge axis and to open position until the free end of the arm registers in alignment between the hinge axis and pulley at the shortest span of the flexible member between the arm end and pulley, in which condition of the movable elements the weight 21 is at the lowest point of its descent, the panel is fully open, and shift of the panel in either direction from its fully open position is resisted by the pull of gravity on the weight which hangs free. Thus, in either a single or double panel door installation, release of the door latching means is effective to automatically open, and to hold open, the panel or panels without recourse to power other than the influence of gravity. 7

Closing of the door panels is an obvious manual operation accomplished directly or through simple linkages from a remote control station and requiring only that moderate pressure applied to and through the leverage of the panel or panels as is requisite to raise the weight or weights and to reengage the latch means.

Since changes, variations, and modifications in the form, construction, and arrangement of the elements shown and described may be had without departing from the spirit of my invention, I wish to be understood as being limited solely by the scope of the appended claims, rather than by any details of the illustrative showing and foregoing description.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination with a door panel swingable outwardly of a structure on a vertical hinge axis at one side margin thereof and means for releasably holding said panel in closed position relative to the associated structure, door-operating mechanism automatically effective to open and to hold open said panel upon release of said means, said mechanism comprising a sigmoidal arm characterized by spacedly-parallel', oppositely-directed end portions fixed at one of said end portions to the face of the panel exposable inwardly of the structure and adjacent the upper margin of said panel with its free end portion ed inwardly of the structure from and spanning horizontally across the panel hinge axis, a directionchanging pulley mounted for rotation about an axis substantially perpendicular to the plane of the closed door anel position fixed to the structure in a spacing inwardly there-of from and adjacent the closed position of the upper corner of said panel at the side of the latter remote from the panel hinge axis, a flexible connection attached at one end to the free end of said arm and engaged over said pulley, and a weight secured for free rise and fall to the other end of said connection.

2. The organization according to claim 1, wherein said arm is fixed to the door panel in a disposition adapted to register its free end with a line between the panel hinge axis and the associated pulley when the panel is in fully open position.

3. The combination with duplicate, complementary door panels swingable outwardly of a structure on separate, vertical hinge axes at the remote side margins thereof and means for releasably holding said panels in coplanarly cooperating closed position relative to the associated structure, door-operating mechanism automatically effective to open and to hold open both of said panels upon release of said means, said mechanism comprising a sigmoidal arm characterized by spacedlyparallel, oppositely-directed end portions fixed at one of said end portions to the face of each of said panels exposable inwardly of the structure and adjacent the upper margin of each of said panels with its free end portion spaced inwardly of the structure from and spanning horizontally across the hinge axis of the associated panel, a direction-changing pulley mounted for rotation about an axis substantially perpendicular to the plane of the panels when in closed position fixed inwardly of the structure from and adjacent the upper end of each panel hinge axis, a flexible connection attached at one end to the free end of each of said arms and engaged over the pulley at the side of the door assembly remote from the hinge axis of the panel carrying the arm, and a weight secured for free rise and fall to the other end of each of said connections.

4. The organization according to claim 3, wherein said arms are similarly fixed to the respective panels in a disposition adapted to register the free end of each of the arms with a line between the hinge axis of the associated panel and the pulley remote therefrom when the associated panel is in fully open position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 646,205 Compton Mar. 27, 1900 1,338,027 Lindberg Apr. 27, 1920 1,576,704 Atkinson Mar. 16, 1926 FOREIGN PATENTS 436,659 Great Britain Oct. 16, 1935 

